1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to a tiltable converter having a trunnion ring surrounding a converter vessel, the converter vessel being supported on the trunnion ring by a mounting system.
2. Description of the Currently Available Technology
Tiltable converters are known in the art. The support system must enable the converter vessel to thermally expand and contract unimpeded in the radial and longitudinal direction. The converter vessel is known to grow globally (material creep), to locally distort and change its shape when subjected to elevated temperature during operation. Such changes in form could affect the loads imposed on the support system members unless the system is statically determinate. This determinacy is desirable to better enable designing the members to the loads applied on them.
A statically determinate tiltable converter is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,364,079, which is herein incorporated by reference. In this tiltable converter, the converter vessel is connected to the trunnion ring by six or seven pendulum rods, with spherical plain bearings located at each end of each rod. The seven rod design, under conditions of converter vessel distortion, would be rendered statically indeterminate, whereas the six rod design, with three Alongitudinal@ pendulum rods extending substantially parallel to a longitudinal axis of the converter vessel and three Atansverse@ pendulum rods extending substantially parallel to the plane of the trunnion ring would be statically determinate. However, additional improvements could be made to further enhance the design and/or performance of this tiltable converter.